Mr Ian Dixey, prosecuting, said the background to the case was a turf war between rival drug gangs in Exeter in February this year.

The defendants were all members of a Birmingham-based Somali gang who called themselves The Chyna Crew. They took orders for drugs through a single mobile number and used local addicts as runners to deliver them.

They also set up base at the homes of customers in return for drugs in an process known as cuckooing and the sexual assaults started when a woman customer went to a house at Sandford Walk to buy heroin at around 11 pm on February 23 this year.

She went with a friend but he was told to leave while the woman was accused of workingfor a rival dealer and taken upstairs at knifepoint and raped.

At one point the three men held went out and when they returned they boasted they had stabbed a man. Mr Dixey said this turned out to be true and related to an attack behind the Duke of York pub in York Road.

He said during her ordeal the woman was driven to a second flat in Ashmore Court, on Haven Road, where she was sexually assaulted. She escaped by saying she was going to a local shop and instead went to the Safe Sleep hostel where she raised the alarm.

Mr Dixey said:"At the first address she was taken to a bathroom by the men where she was made to kiss the bottom of their feet and call them King Chyna. They took water from the lavatory bowl and made her drink it.

"They told her they would pimp her out to every smack user for £3 a time. They threatened to shave off her hair, throw liquid over her and set light to her. It was clearly intended to frighten and humiliate.

"At Ashmore Court Abukar took her straight to the bedroom where he made her strip completely naked and raped her. She described how the men continued to humiliate her.

"She was physically scared, especially when a knife was taken out. She thought she was going to be killed. She did everything she could to get out alive.

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"She offered to work for them by delivering drugs and she submitted to their sexual demands although she had no wish to do so. You can imagine how frightened she was and how she willing to do anything to get out of the situation.

He said the other two men forced her to have oral sex before they all left to carry out the assault on a man called Joseph Kelly, who they believed was a rival dealer and who was traced with the help of Olivia, who also acted as a runner for them

Mr Dixey said Mr Kelly was attacked at the rear of the Duke of York and suffered a small stab wound to his chest and others to his legs and buttocks.

Women passers by who witnessed the attack were also threatened and one of the men said 'you bitches saw nothing'.

Mr Dixey said Abukar and Kadir had also taken part in an incident at Wynford Road, Exeter, on February 8 in which the door of a house where they believed a rival dealer was living was blasted with a shotgun.

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Kadir, Abukar and Olivia were arrested together in Cardiff a few days later and Mohammed was arrested as he boarded a ferry to Ireland. He had a plane ticket to Dubai with him.

They all denied all the offences but the only one who gave a full interview to police was Kadir, who said they had been set up by a rival gang and that the woman was lying and had consented to any sexual activity.